The Masnavi, Book One (Oxford World's Classics)

Early Islamic Mysticism (Mahwah, 
1996).
2
Concerning the contrast between the Mevlevi 
sama
 and other forms of Sufi sama ,
see J. During, ‘What is Su
fi Music?’ in L. Lewisohn, ed., The Legacy of Medieval Persian
Su
fism (London and New York, 1992), 277–87.
3
See further C. W. Ernst, 
The Shambhala Guide to Su
fism (Boston, 1997), 191–4.
4
See further C. W. Ernst, tr., 
Teachings of Su
fism (Boston, 1999), 82–94 and
A. Ghazali, 
Sawanih: Inspirations from the World of Pure Spirits, tr. N. Pourjavady
(London, 
1986).
Introduction
xii

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responsible for integrating Su
fism with mainstream Sunni Islam, as
a practical form of Muslim piety that can provide irrefutable
knowledge of religious truths through direct mystical experience.
5
In this way, by the thirteenth century diverse forms of Su
fism had
developed and become increasingly popular. Rumi was introduced to
Su
fism through his father, Baha Valad, who followed a more con-
servative tradition of Muslim piety, but his life was transformed
when he encountered the profound mystic Shams-e Tabriz.
Although many of the followers of the tradition of his father con-
sidered Shams to be totally unworthy of Rumi’s time and attention,
he considered him to be the most complete manifestation of God.
Rumi expressed his love and utter devotion for his master Shams,
with whom he spent little more than two years in total, through
thousands of ecstatic lyrical poems. Towards the end of his life he
presented the fruit of his experience of Su
fism in the form of the
Masnavi, which has been judged by many commentators, both
within the Su
fi tradition and outside it, to be the greatest mystical
poem ever written.
Rumi and his Times
The century in which Rumi lived was one of the most tumultuous in
the history of the Middle East and Central Asia. When he was about
ten years old the region was invaded by the Mongols, who, under the
leadership of Genghis Khan, left death and destruction in their
wake. Arriving through Central Asia and north-eastern Persia, the
Mongols soon took over almost the entire region, conquering
Baghdad in 
1258. The collapse at the hands of an infidel army of the
once glorious Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, the symbolic capital of
the entire Muslim world, was felt throughout the region as a tre-
mendous shock. Soon afterwards, there was a sign that the map of
the region would continue to change, when the Mongols su
ffered a
major defeat in Syria, at Ayn Jalut in 
1260. Rumi’s life was directly
a
ffected by the military and political developments of the time,
5
The chapter of Mohammad Ghazali’s autobiography which describes his experi-
ence on the Su
fi path is available in translation in N. Calder, J. Mojaddedi, and
A. Rippin, eds. and trs., 
Classical Islam: A Sourcebook of Religious Literature (London,
2003), 228–32.
Introduction
xiii

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beginning with his family’s emigration from north-eastern Persia
just two years before the Mongols arrived to conquer that region.
Although the family eventually relocated to Konya (ancient Ico-
nium) in central Anatolia, Rumi witnessed the spread of Mongol
authority across that region too when he was still a young man.
In spite of the upheaval and destruction across the region during
this century, there were many outstanding Su
fi authors among
Rumi’s contemporaries. The most important Su
fi theosopher ever,
Ebn
Arabi (d. 1240), produced his highly influential works during
the
first half of the century. His student and foremost interpreter,
Sadroddin Qunyavi (d. 
1273), settled in Konya some fifteen years
after his master’s death and became associated with Rumi. This
could have been one channel through which Rumi might have gained
familiarity with Ebn 
Arabi’s theosophical system, although his
poetry does not suggest the direct in
fluence of the latter’s works.
6
The lives of two of the most revered Su
fi poets also overlapped
with Rumi’s life: the most celebrated Arab Su
fi poet, Ebn al-Farez
(d.
1235), whose poetry holds a position of supreme importance
comparable with that of Rumi in the Persian canon;
7
and Faridoddin
Attar (d. 1220), who was Rumi’s direct predecessor in the com-
position of Persian mystical